2013 Our little offering this year was inspired by the idea to publish our photograph collection of rural mailboxes. And, since we have not used Santa’s delivery before, we remain ahead of our established rules in not repeating themes from one year to the next.
2012 In Australia, 2012 was declared a national year of reading. We translated the idea into our little Christmas offering for this year. We haven’t used a sleigh in our Christmas card design before, so this was a good opportunity to load one up with a bundle of books for a good Christmas read. Hope you enjoy some of them.
2011 Our card this year is inspired by our trip to the Midlands wildflower country to find the Wreath Flower. We heard about this endemic plant by chance and thought it might be a good idea for our annual card, since we have never used a Christmas wreath on a card design. We used our front door and one of our photos, then edited the elements to produce this card, our little offering for Christmas
2010 Our little offering for Christmas this year incorporates a scattering of all the cards we have made over 20 years. You can see the development of our cards from the old dot-matrix grey printers (remember them?) through to crafted cards and on to colour photographs as we progressed through what computer technology and the availability of printer papers allowed us to do.
2009 Our Christmas card design this year is a panel from my Christmas Stamp Box. Ten years ago, I started collecting the stamps to cover my box inside and out with Christmas stamps from all over the world. I didn’t count them but I used more than 300 stamps, the final one stuck to the box in January 2009
2008 Our Christmas card this year was inspired by a chance remark which led us to mount a search for the Tin Horse Highway. Months before the Kulin Bush Races, workshops are busy – not with the sounds of farm machinery but with the construction of tin horses made from all sorts of materials and striking all manner of poses. The horses appear in the pasture and stubble paddocks lining the road now know as the ‘Tin Horse Highway” We chose the photo with the most red and added components to give Santa a rocket to deliver the goodies.
2007 Our Christmas card design this year was inspired by the Benedictine Monastery in New Norcia, 140 km north-east of Perth. The township is what remains of the early Mission to the Aborigines and contains a treasure of religious art and architecture, quite at odds with what one would expect to find so far out in the Australian bush. The stained glass windows in the Marian Shrine suggested a very appropriate Christmas card design. We hope you like it too.
2006 After enjoying all of what Cyprus has on offer, we folded our tent and started a new life in Australia. Our card is just a little map showing Santa dropping us from a great height to add two gifts to boost the population of Australia. All done with a bit of picture manipulation in photoshop.
2005 The idea for our card this year came when we were scanning Hector’s family slide collection to put it onto CDs for his grandchildren. As soon as the picture of his three children in Lebanon’s snow came up on the screen, we thought it could form the base for a Christmas card. So we played around a bit on the computer and added a few components to celebrate the season. We hope you like the result.
2004 Our little card offering to you this year is a photo of some of our Christmas card collage boxes we use to store our decorations. If you look carefully you might even find one of your own. I used to remember who sent most of them but not any more. There are too many and some were received a long time ago. However I can still call to mind who sent some of them.
2003 It only took me 15 years to come up with a Cyprus related Christmas theme. I lived in the home of Byzantine art all that time and never thought to use it in my Christmas theme. The picture I chose is unique because it is the only wall mural depicting the Virgin breast-feeding the Christ child. In Photoshop, I styled a photograph into a diamond shape and placed copies on A4 sheets. I printed, laminated, cut out the diamonds and secured each to a pre-printed gold card.
2002 This year’s card design is an accidental but timely reflection. Last Christmas, Hector and I cruised downtown Larnaka at night with the digital camera. We were amazed at the quality of the pictures and decided that we must try to do something with the results. So here it is, a computerised then hand finished rendition of one of the street light decorations in Larnaka. Evidence too, that our computers continue to play a big part of our hobby time. We just never seem to tire of finding things to do with this great technology.
2001 Over the years I have often boasted to you about the pièce de rÊsistance of my Christmas preparations and grand Pudding Parties held here every year with our guests eagerly searching for the silver coins buried deep in the flesh under the custards and creams. So, when I was thinking of a design for our card this year, what better than a pudding theme? This offering is a combination from the printer and a bit of craft work, using some of the more interesting papers coming onto the market.
2000 This year we have reverted to an old format for the card to fit in a much longer letter in a print size our friends can handle. We offered two designs, the first being a stylised tree I drew then scanned into the computer. After printing, green glitter over the branches brought it to life. The second is our pudding, loaded with brandy and silver coins then set to swing gently in the shade to mature. A photo imported into a photoshop background.
1999 I found the Christmas tree in Printshop. After the cards were printed, I used red glitter to bring it to life.
1998 A little play around with letters in Printshop, with a couple of graphics included. After the cards were printed I put in some self adhesive stars.
1997 I found gold chain decorations with Christmas symbols. I cut them and glued them on to fabric backing. I think I had roughly 8 designs for this year’s offerings.
1996 I chose the snowmen graphic from Printshop, repeated it in staggering sizes. Then I added other graphics, and a border. Just for fun, I personalised our signature inside the card, once again using Printshop. I used the card option to print the designs then printed our letter on the reverse. Printed on light weight card.
1995 I used a Printshop row design and placed it at the bottom of the sign format. All I added were the text options from the program. This allowed me a three fold with our letter on the back.
1994 We updated our greeting card program and used a deskjet colour printer. The candle is a Printshop row design just as it comes in the program. By placing the graphic in the centre of the sign format, the card folded into three, fitting nicely into a DL Landscape envelope.
1993 One of Printshop’s Christmas graphics with a religious theme. With the simple addition of the Star in the top left hand corner, it made a more personal offering. Printed on paper
1992 The dot matrix printer still in use for this offering, using the same card program. This time we used highlighter pens for colour and added thick spots of glitter to enhance the row of gifts.
1991 Our very first offering made using Printshop, a card, sign and banner program, designed to use a dot matrix printer. No colour, of course but we did what we could. The only paper available being the ones with the perforated holes to guide the paper through the printer A self-adhesive star added a bit of interest.